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Topic: Just how far should u go? (Read 2039 times)

I have heard it time and again, you can move your hive 2 feet or 2 miles, Has anyone ever given it a go to move a hive 100 yards, What is the problem of only moving them that short distance? These little fellers move out to about 6 miles to find blossom, if the hive was moved two miles then they are still within the range of where they come from, so wouldn't they return back to original spot... Cheers Lek,

Just move them, they'll do fine. Move them in the dark and cover the entrance with twigs/leaves to make the re-orient in the morning.

Scott

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My own magic number is one mile, but I have moved them less of a distance but try not to. But of course I am referring to swarms and cutouts where swarms just want a nice home and bees are often so disarrayed after a cutout they can't help but re-orient to the new location.

If moving short distances, the less distance between each move, the better. A gal wanted a colony on her property moved 50' just last week before the southeast organic conference I attended. I moved them a third of the distance over a three day period.

If 100 yards, I would seriously consider making a split, leaving the queenless colony at the old location to catch the returning bees. The parent colony would get a big branch or other obstruction right in front of the entrance to help them re-orient.

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

I would say the distance you have to move the hive depends on your location and climate and how far your bees have to fly for forage. They will stay within a mile if there is plenty of nectar and pollen available. If your bees have to fly three miles them you would want to move over six I would think. Im pretty sure mine dont need to travel more than two miles ever.

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Thanks to all who read and replied to my post, "Just how far should u go?".......... just a bit of a carry on why I needed to move them 100 yds, I wanted to bring the hive bach home so I could fit a new landing board, one that has a better beatle trap then the one that was on the hive, we had had a fair bit or rain after the cyclone that was hanging around, the ground was a bit too boggy to get my ute down to it, plus a whopping big branch fell and just missed the hive, So I reckon it would be a good idea to bring the hive up to higher ground.

Hi Lone, Still a bit of blossom around, I was thinking about moving a hive or two up to nephews place, fair amount of iron bark, blue gum, carbeen, and heaps of others. I had a quick trip up to cairns this week, bit of paper bark and out but didn't see much else, spent the night in Cardwell,had a look through the sisters garden and could not find one bee.maybe they were taking shelter from the rain.

I would like to see how you go, Lek. If you only have one hive there, I can't see how the bees have any option but to find the new location. Of course, you could number all the bees and count them afterwards..

What is the rationale for not shifting hives a medium distance? Has anyone done this and had problems?

Lek, we just have a tiny amount of bloodwood out, mainly. Somehow the weather hasn't stimulated it to bloom properly.

Last year I moved bee's just 1/2 mile from my farm to a friends place Between the 2 apiaries is a large woods of big maples and I think this makes a difference. I moved them sealed up after dark and none returned. I did move one a couple of years ago during the day and that afternoon found a soft ball size cluster on my jeep tire that had been sitting next to the hive.